Banana cake pops

I wasn't expecting to make these again so soon after last time, but I had to use up a banana and coconut cake which was getting forgotten in the fridge!

This time though I made up a cream cheese frosting and mixed this into the cake crumbs. I was careful not to overdo the frosting to cake ratio this time round and I think I succeeded in getting the correct texture. I also made the balls a little smaller, (somewhere between a walnut and a golf ball size).

I used up some leftover dark chocolate to adhere the cake pops to the lolly sticks.
After chilling the pops in the freezer for a while, I dipped them in a little melted white chocolate before dropping on some sprinkles by hand. I used a spoon to try to scrap off some of the excess chocolate as last time the coating was quite thick and added to the extra sweetness. They might not look perfect but I was quite pleased with the result, I think they are nicer than the chocolate ones I made first time round. Only trouble is.........the youngest member of the household says he doesn't like them! Oh well, I tried!

What went wrong with my soap?

I made this olive oil based soap last week and it's still very sticky and doesn't look right. I used different olive oil to the usual one I use - it was actually some from our neighbours who have olive trees. The oil was very green in colour with quite a bit of sediment, no good for culinary use. Apparently something went wrong in the pressing process, so they gave it to me to experiment with in my soap making!
I'm picking my results were because of this oil, but can any experienced soap makers out there confirm this? or maybe have any other suggestions? Pretty sure I had the oil and lye at the correct temperatures and I mixed well with my stick blender until trace.
Will it dry out in time? I'm turning it daily and the edges are looking drier but the middles not. Your comments are very welcome as I'm such a novice at soap making!

Ginger

I'm linking this post to something I just read here:

http://www.garden-nz.co.nz/plants-and-products/plant-of-the-week/show-us-your-ginger.html

While I think the 'Hug a Ginga Day' sounds daft (I had to look up what it meant, see here if you're in the dark like me)......the info about actual Ginger (the plant that is) is quite interesting.

At the moment I've got a tropical arrangement on my kitchen table, which includes some flowering galangal, that's it there with the yellow/white flowers and fabulous green foliage. I've put a bird of paradise flower in there too, another of my favourite tropical plants.

But I truly hope and trust that this is in fact galangal, as it is quite rampant and comes up even if you think you've dug it all out as is the case with me! It is beautiful though, the flowers are divinely scented. The rhizomes are pink, see here.

Can anyone verify that this is actually real galangal? I read somewhere that sometimes another type of ginger is sold and either intentionally or mistakenly called galangal...